Everyone Needs One

Everyone needs...an Emily. 

 My good friend, Emily, is a retired teacher. It's been about 5 years since she retired. I'm still trying to get over the fact that she is no longer in "her" room. Emily has always been a mentor to me. She is someone I look up to. She is someone I never want to disappoint. 

 The lucky part is that once a week, she visits my room. Yep, that's right. Emily has been volunteering one day a week in my room as a gift to me (and my students) for the past 3 years. She works with students, organizes my mess, listens to me vent and helps me/my students with special projects. She comes in the morning and stays the whole day!  My students love her and ask about her when she is not there.  She is amazing!

Each time she comes, I worry that I have not thanked her enough. I promised her that I would gift a teacher the same gift when I retire. I feel so lucky to have her help. 

 Last month, she gave me another gift. It was better than my favorite flowers, better than chocolate turtles and just as great as a winning lottery ticket. During one of her visits (and in between me whining about the curriculum and my conference schedule), she told me that she wants me to know that I am a good teacher. Those words and her weekly visits mean more to me than Emily will ever know. 

 Every teacher needs an Emily. Some day, I'm going to try really hard to be "Emily" for someone else who needs her as much as I do.
 

Snowman Subtraction Sort Freebie

Happy Sunday!  

Today, I'm sharing freebie #5 of the week (oops - maybe the week was over yesterday).  I appreciate each of you and the many new friends I've made since I started blogging. Please visit my posts from last week, if you didn't have a chance to download the first 4 freebies.

 You can download a copy of this snowman themed subtraction sort by clicking on the image below.  If you like it, please leave a comment.  I really do love comments. :)

This girl is going to bed early!  Have a great week!

Dancin' Teachers and Snowman Addition Freebie

Fun weekend at our house! 

 Last night, my husband (a teacher) and several other teachers at his school won our annual Schools of Rock competition. Teachers from each school in the district perform routines (dancing mostly) in a competition that serves as a fundraiser for our educational foundation. 

Below... is my groovy husband. And if you click on his photo, you can visit the link that will play the video of his staff in their award winning routine. They rocked the stage (and won 1st place for the 2nd year in a row).  

I'm starting to think middle school teachers are just more fun (or at least better dancers)...check it out and see what you think.  I'm pretty sure my middle school wood shop teacher couldn't dance like that.

And a freebie for you...

Off to walk the dogs and take a nap, so I can cross both off my lazy Saturday list. :)

Addition Math Boxes (Freebie)

A quick post...which I meant to do last night (but I ended up waiting in the urgent care  waiting room for the whole evening instead).  Oy... today was much better.

This week, I'm celebrating all of you with 5 freebies!  This is #3.  If you missed the others, please head back to my 2 previous posts if you'd like to download the 1st two.

Today was kind of a stressful day at the office if ya know what I mean.  Actually, it's been a bit much all week.  I have a really nice class.  If I could just hide in my room with my kids (and avoid the hallway drama, the curriculum disasters and the doom that is lurking in our state government), life would be so much less stressful.

So, I'll end with three simple things that I'm thankful for (just in case any of you had a similar week).

1.  I'm thankful for kids that have good manners (my students have  great manners - really).

2. I'm thankful for the mom who stopped me in the hallway today to tell me that her daughter hated reading until she met me. (The little girl was in my reading intervention program 3 years ago.)

3. I'm thankful for my next door teacher neighbor (and friend).  She smiles when I barge through our secret door (which connects our classrooms) to tell her something not very important about every 20 minutes throughout the day.  And...she shares recess duty with me.  It is so nice to have a friendly neighbor on the other side of our secret door. Love ya, Jenny!

Yippee!  It's almost Friday!!!

Funky Fun Freebie #2 (List Making Writing)

Thanks for helping me celebrate!  This post contains freebie #2 for this week...so if you missed #1 yesterday you should could go back and grab it.

During writer's workshop, I've been talking about the things that good writers do to help organize their ideas.  We did a mini-lesson this week about list making.  I started by showing them my special pink notebook.  It's really just an lined journal with a pink leather cover that holds my precious "to do" list.  I love to put little check marks by each of the things on my list.

I also read the book, Everything to Spend the Night  by Ann Whitford Paul.  It's about a little girl who takes "everything from A to Z" to her grandpa's house for a sleepover - but she forgets her pajamas. 

I wanted my students to practice making a list about a specific topic.  I modeled "everything to bake cookies" first. 

Then I had my students write a list about "everything to make hot chocolate".  They brainstormed ideas with a partner first (just in case someone has not had hot chocolate before).  Then we shared our ideas with the group in a circle before each child worked on his/her own list.  They were super excited to work on this project. They will be using the lists they made today to help them get started on their how to writing project tomorrow.

What my students don't know yet is that we will be having a hot chocolate and candy cane publishing party in two weeks!

You can click on the image below to download a copy of a few winter themed list writing pages.   

I'm off to drop my daughter off at dance class, walk the dogs and bake cookies!

I love cookies and comments! :) 

1500 Hooray! (5 Funky Fun Freebies)

I'm ALMOST to 1500 followers! I have not been posting as much as I want to this year, but I'm doing my best to post a couple times a week. I still remember when my goal was 15 followers. How funny is that!? That was back in the day when I could barely attach a document to my post, I had no Funky First Grade Fun facebook page and I had never heard of Tpt or Pinterest. My how things have changed in just a few years! 

 I owe a huge thank you to all of you! Thank you for following my blog. Thank you for liking my facebook page. Thank you for following my Tpt store. Thank you for making my Teachers Notebook shop one of your favorites. Thank you for pinning my ideas/products. Thank you for all of your purchases. And...thank you for the super nice comments that always make me smile!  I feel so lucky to have made so many new teacher friends.  I'm inspired each day when I read all of the blogs I follow.

Now, on to the celebration!

Here is the first freebie of the week.  You can click on the image below to download a copy.  If you do, please leave a comment to let me know you grabbed it. 

And please...someone send a friend so I really can get to 1500!  

Coming throughout the week...the other freebies.  Hope to see you back here soon.  Thank you for following my little old blog!  

Happy Monday (it's almost over so that seems ok to say now)!

December Currently

It's time for Farley's December version of Currently!

Head over to visit Farley so you can read/link up/share some love by leaving a comment for other bloggers.
Happy Monday!